


Jersey

by leiascully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, Gen, Gift Giving, Pining, Terminal Illnesses, X-Files OctoberFicFest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-29 08:25:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8482483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: Scully takes Mulder's Knicks t-shirt to the hospital.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: cancer arc  
> A/N: From a tumblr prompt.  
> Disclaimer: _The X-Files_ and all related characters are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox Studios. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

Her mother brings her bag to the hospital, the last time Scully goes in. There’s a little dresser, a pale imitation of home. Her mother unpacks Scully’s things for something to do. She lays them out carefully in the drawer with a lavender sachet she brought.

“Hospitals don’t exactly smell very restful,” she says, patting the sachet as she tucks it in among Scully’s underthings. It’s strange to have her mother handling her laundry after all these years, but Scully’s grateful for the help. As ridiculous as it sounds, she doesn’t have the energy to shift her clothes from the bag to the drawers. It isn’t even as if there’s much - mostly underwear and pajamas. She isn’t expecting to have the opportunity to wear anything less casual. She’ll be lucky if they let her out of the paper gowns.

“I didn’t know you liked basketball,” her mother says, shaking the folds out of a t-shirt so that she can refold it. She holds it up for Scully to see and Scully blushes. It’s Mulder’s Knicks t-shirt. He gave it to her one night on a case when she had a nosebleed. Her pajama top was ruined. He’d stripped off his t-shirt on the spot and handed it to her, still warm. She’d thanked him, gone back to her room, and put it on, and she’d woken up with the scent of his skin all around her. 

“I do,” Scully lies. 

“Well, you do work with so many men,” her mother says. “I’m sure it’s nice to have something to talk about.” She folds the shirt neatly and puts it into the drawer next to Scully’s matching pajama sets. It looks out of place, but Scully doesn’t regret bringing it.

“It is,” Scully says, looking at her hands. 

After her mother leaves, when she’s alone in her hospital room, she takes the shirt out of the drawer and slips it on over her hospital gown. It doesn’t smell like Mulder anymore, but it still comforts her. It’s worn and soft and reminds her of better days, before she was haunted by this mass between her eyes. She fingers the rip at the hem where Mulder tore a piece off to test Boggs.  
They have accomplished so much together. It’s strange that that’s nearly at an end. There’s nothing she can do about that except pray. 

She falls asleep clutching the fabric of the shirt in her fist.


End file.
